Studying Mistletoe
by Asaka Kiseragi
Summary: “The legend is that when two people stand beneath the mistletoe, they’re supposed to kiss.” Sometimes, even the best laid and most successful plans can have strings attached at the end of it all. KuroFai and hints of SyaoranXSakura.


_A.N: Well, check me out with my first over Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle story. Just in time for Christmas too, so…you can already guess it's going to involve the ever faithful, ever trusty…MISTLETOE!_

_Let's have a big round of applause for the mistletoe, eh?_

_Anyway, the pairings are: Kurogane/Fai (…duh) and a little SyaoranXSakura at the end…because…they are too cute for words. _

_So, enough talk, and on with the story!_

* * *

**Disclaimer**: If I owned Tsubasa, I'd take out all the subtext and hints surrounding Kurogane and Fai and then make 'em fully canon. Sadly, we're stuck with the hints. Feh.

* * *

Syaoran was not a stupid person. On the contrary, he was very smart for his age. He could figure out things it would take some grown adults years to make heads or tails of, and was a lot more mature than most young men his age should be. He had a goal; to return the memories of his most important person…even if she didn't remember him at the end…yet, despite this serious mission, he still found himself having fun along the way. 

The fun was found mainly when it came to studying the personalities of his fellow travellers. Syaoran was quite a good judge of character, and over time began to tell that Fai's constant smiles were covering something deep and painful, and despite his gruff exterior, Kurogane was really quite kind-hearted. He was also rather adept at seeing how people interacted, and over the past few months had come to the solid conclusion that there was _something_ between his two elder companions, but it wasn't going anywhere. Fai's constant teasing of their dark haired companion was a rather interesting form of flirtation, and Kurogane – although he attempted to convince everyone that he hated Fai's guts – tended to over-react to the little things Fai did; such as the nicknames. All in all, Syaoran had come to the conclusion that his two elder companions were acting like young children with a crush in the proverbial playground.

Luckily for them, Syaoran had recently found the perfect opportunity to give them both a, shall we say…light 'push' in the right direction.

The latest world Mokona had taken them to was a rather modern world. It reminded Syaoran a little of the Hanshin Republic, especially seeing as two women had been waiting for them: Becci and Jessie apparently owed Yuko a bit of a favour, and – like Sorata and Arashi – decided to put them up in their home for the duration of the group's stay. Currently, this world was in its 'winter' season, and was about to celebrate a holiday known as 'Christmas'…

…Which explained the giant evergreen tree in one corner of the room, and a grumpy Kurogane hefting around large boxes of tree decorations at the command of the small dark brunette Becci, and yelling at Fai for not helping.

Blinking, Syaoran pulled his hands out of a small green bag andstared at the little sprig of green leaves and white berries he held in his hand.

"…Hey! Jessie!" he called over to the slightly elder of the two girls, who was busy tucking a blanket over the sleeping form of Sakura. Jessie straightened upright, and pushed some of her auburn hair behind one ear,

"Yar?"

"What's this?" he asked, waving the small plant around. Jessie grinned,

"Oh that, it's called mistletoe," she plucked it out of his grasp and settled herself on the floor next to the brown haired male,

"There's a tradition that when two people stand under the mistletoe – you usually stick it on the ceiling or something – they have to kiss," she continued, tossing the sprig of mistletoe from one hand to the other. Syaoran 'hmm'ed slightly, and tapped his chin, before grinning widely.

Jessie's eyebrow arched slightly, as in the background Becci huffed, pushed her fringe out of her right eye, and began directing where the decorations would be put,

"…What's that look for?" Jessie asked. Syaoran grinned, and leant forwards to whisper in the auburn haired girl's hair. As Syaoran continued his explanation, Jessie's eyes began to take on an evil glitter. Finally, her face split into a giant grin, and she gave Syaoran a gentle, yet approving slap on the back,

"That, my friend, is pure genius. Tell you what, get your little friend Mokona over here, I'll get Becci and we'll help you set this up…then we'll leave you to it…we need to go and get some things in anyway," she said, giving Syaoran a thumbs up.

Syaoran grinned. Time to put his plan into action.

* * *

"Neeeeee…Kuro-chi…" 

"_WHAT?_"

Fai blinked slightly, as a now rather irate Kurogane spun around to glare at him, whilst attempting to brush pine needles out of his hair. Fai giggled slightly, before waving his arm around,

"Syaoran-kun asked us to go into the kitchen for a bit," the blond haired magician said, "He needs help with something."

There was a small silence, as Kurogane weighed the options of staying in the living room and wrestling with glittery, girly things and a giant tree, or heading into the relative safety of the kitchen where there was no tree, and the chance of getting something to eat.

…Yeah.

"Fine…" the black haired ninja mumbled, before stomping off towards the kitchen, followed by a bouncing Fai who was humming a traditional – and _incredibly_ annoying – Christmas tune.

Now, the kitchen was a relatively safe place to be…if you ignored the large knives that Fai had nearly stabbed him with on their first day in the house, and the oven which had bitten – read: burned – him when he'd gotten too close to it…but entering the kitchen and seeing the kid leaning against the cabinets, with a uncharacteristically evil grin on his face made every nerve in Kurogane's body scream at him to turn around and flee with his proverbial tail between his legs. Sadly, Fai was standing right behind him, so fleeing would've resulted in a large crash and pile of irate ninja and laughing magician on the floor…and, really, Kurogane didn't need that right now.

Instead, he opted for raising an eyebrow, and ignoring Fai – who was peering over his shoulder into the kitchen. Syaoran smiled – Kurogane vaguely noted that he looked like a cat about to pounce on a pigeon - and pointed upwards.

Slowly, both Kurogane and Fai followed the direction of Syaoran's finger…only to spot a relatively harmless looking sprig of greenery being held above their heads by a not-so-harmless waving Mokona,

"Hiiiii Kurogane!" the little white creature cooed. Fai blinked a few times, ignoring Kurogane's muttered curses directed at Mokona.

"…Syaoran-kun…I'll agree that that's quite a pretty plant, but…um…" he trailed off and glanced down at his younger companion, "…What about it is so special?"

Syaoran lowered his finger,

"There's a tradition surrounding the mistletoe," the brunet male began, and Kurogane attempted to squash the warning signs that had sprung up in his inner vision,

"The legend is that when two people stand beneath the mistletoe, they're supposed to kiss."

Silence.

More silence.

"WHAT?" Kurogane yelled, staring down at the kid with a classic Kodak expression of horror, "…You mean I'm supposed to…" he pointed at Fai, who tilted his head and blinked. Syaoran nodded slowly,

"That's the tradition," Syaoran repeated, very much enjoying himself.

Kurogane turned slightly pale. The kid…the kid freakin' _knew_. How did he know!

Silently, Kurogane began cursing. He cursed the kid, for figuring everything that had taken him a good few months to figure out for himself in half the time, and now he was _forcing_ him into this. Kurogane was a man who took his time! And when it came to matter involving that damn magician, time meant never!

…This was all Fai's fault. Stupid magician.

Speaking of Fai…

"But Kuro-wan," the blond shimmied around to stand in front of him, "We can't break tradition, can we? That'd be rude!"

"I'm quite willing try dam—MMPH!"

Syaoran's grin widened impossibly as the Fai tackled Kurogane, and he gave Mokona a thumbs up. The small white creature leapt down from the doorframe, mistletoe still clutched in its paws and bounded over to Syaoran,

"Syaoran was right!" it cheered, doing a little dance around Syaoran's feet and waving the mistletoe like a flag. Syaoran crouched down and scooped Mokona up,

"Seems like I was," he said cheerfully, letting the white 'pork bun' hop onto his shoulder, before heading towards the doorway – carefully stepping over the pile of ninja and magician on the floor.

As soon as Syaoran had left, Fai pulled away, lacing his fingers together and resting them on Kurogane's chest before resting his chin on the laced fingers with a large grin,

"See Kuro-pippi, that wasn't so bad… right?" he chirped, as Kurogane's glared at him, his red eyes studying Fai's face carefully,

"… … …Shut up," the black haired ninja suddenly snapped, grabbing the back of Fai's head and dragging him back down again.

* * *

"I can't believe you did that Syaoran-kun!" Sakura giggled into her hand. Syaoran smiled warmly at her, 

"Well, it was obvious there was something there…they just needed a push in the right direction," he explained, as the princess and her 'prince' descended the stairs. Becci had called him and Sakura downstairs, saying they were all going to play a game of something called 'charades'. Jessie had explained this game to him, and it was a strange sort of miming game, which guaranteed some good laughs; so Sakura was rather enthusiastic about playing, and if Sakura was excited, then so was he.

Sakura giggled again, and quickly reached out to straighten the red and white hat she'd stuck on his head. After talking to Becci, Sakura had decided to get into the festive spirit herself – she was wearing a red and white dress and a hat similar to Syaoran's on her head, and had obviously managed to persuade Syaoran to join in by wearing a hat.

Syaoran was just glad to see her acting a little more the Sakura he remembered: full of energy, smiles, and enthusiasm. Of course, she still got tired easily, but when she was awake she was almost the old Sakura again…

Syaoran's thoughts trailed off as he entered the living room, freezing in the doorway, and thus causing Sakura to bump into his back.

"Syaoran-kun? What's wrong?" the princess asked, but got no reply. Syaoran was too busy paling at the evil grin Kurogane was giving him.

The black haired ninja was sat on one end of the blue velvet sofa Becci and Jessie owned, his arms stretched out over the back of the sofa and the evil grin plastered on his face. Fai was sprawled out on the rest of the sofa, his legs lounging across Kurogane's lap, and waving cheerily at the two young teenagers in the doorway.

Finally, Jessie and Becci were stood behind the sofa, both fiddling with strange grey boxes that Syaoran vaguely remembered as being called cameras. They stopped to grin at him in a way that was a vaguely reminiscent of Kurogane.

Sakura blinked slightly,

"Um…" she tugged at her skirt nervously, "What's going on?"

In a slightly nerve wrecked display of simultaneous action, Fai and Kurogane both pointed up at the doorframe above Syaoran and Sakura's heads. Syaoran gulped, and winced slightly as he peered up to see Mokona waving down at him with one paw, and clutching a sprig of mistletoe in the other.

Ignoring Sakura's puzzled glances, Syaoran's head shot down to stare at Kurogane and Fai in shock.

Kurogane smirked,

"Your turn kid."

* * *

_… …BWHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Man, oh, man that sucked. But it was really fun to write, especially the ending._

_I apologise for any glaring grammatical, or spelling errors in this. I'll confess that this story was a bit of a rush job. I just couldn't neglect this idea..._

_Ah well…Merry Christmas to one and all! Please give me a Christmas present by reviewing! _

_--Asaka_


End file.
